Shooting raw on iOS and Android with other apps

- Camera phones have dramatically changedthe photographic landscape through the power of ubiquity.With smartphones, most of us always havea camera with us, there are limitations tosmartphones of course they,lack interchangeable lenses,they have tiny sensors, which make for images withmuch more noise, they don't offer the same level ofcontrol as a dedicated camera anduntil recently, they could only shoot in jpeg format.While it's possible to shoot great pictures in jpeg formatif you're someone who likes to edit a lot,then when you're shooting with your phoneyou possibly miss the option for raw shooting,which you might be used to on your dedicated camera.

What's more, jpeg's make it harder to recoverfrom shooting mistakes such asover exposed highlights and bad wide balance.If you're normally a raw shooter, then shootingwith your smartphone can be a bit of a step backwardsfrom the capability that you're accustomed to.Fortunately, the latest versions of both IOSand Android now offer support for raw shooting,which means that with the right software,you can have all the advantages of raw,right there on your cellphone or tablet.I say, with the right software,and I make that gesture because the stock camerasthat come with both iPhone and Androids don't offerthe ability to shoot in raw format.

Today, on the Practicing Photographer,I'm going to take a quick look at some third party appsthat let you take advantage of the raw abilityof your mobile device.First though, you need to figure outif you have raw capability on your mobile device.Raw support wasn't added to IOS until version 10 so,if you're using anything earlier than that,you won't be able to shoot raw.Even if you still have version 10,you might not be raw capable because in additionto IOS 10, you need to have an iPhone SE, 6S,6S Plus, 7, 7 Plus,or the 9.7 inch iPad Pro.

Obviously, if you're watching thisway in the future, iPhones and iPads that comeafter those models will likely have raw support.Raw was added to Android with version five, lollipop,but as with IOS just because you're running that IOS,doesn't mean you can shoot raw.You'll need to do a bit of research on your particularAndroid phone, or tablet to determine if it's raw capable.Once you know you have the hardware,and OS necessary for shooting raw,then you'll want to consider a camera app.IOS users might want to take a look at ProCamera.

Which offers a simple interfacefull manual exposure, and throws in some cool extrassuch as, anti shake and burst shooting.Obscura Camera also offers a good level ofmanual control, but wraps it up in a much moreminimalist interface, if too many on screen buttons botheryou while you're shooting, then this might be a good option.Finally, Camera+, offers manual controls,and intuitive interface, and raw shootingjust like the other two, but it's not able to exporta raw image, instead it offers raw editing tools of its own.

Depending on your work flow, that may or may notbe a good thing.Android users also have a few options.Including ProShot, which is also available for IOS.And which offers an incredibly complete interfaceincluding mode dials of various kinds,and advanced features like bracketing and stabilization,ProShot does a great job of making you feel likeyou're using a real camera.There might be other camera apps out therethat offer raw shooting on the iPhone and Android.

Simply googling around on the topicis an easy way to find out.These are all great apps.But my personal preference for raw shooting on my phoneis Lightroom Mobile.In addition to offering a raw capable camera,with all the exposure controls and features that I want,Lightroom Mobile also offers up the best raw editing toolson any platform, and it serves as the mobile endof my entire Lightroom based workflow.In my opinion, Lightroom Mobile,and Lightroom on the desktop make for an idealworkflow that can accommodate raw shooting and editing.

With both a phone and a real camera.And its a workflow that can spandesktop computers, laptop computers,and mobile devices thanks to Lightroom Mobile'ssyncing ability, my raw images automatically getmoved to the right devices.If you'd like to know more about how to set upa fully featured raw workflow based on Lightroom,and Lightroom Mobile,check out my Lightroom workflow course.All of these apps on both operating systemsstore their images in DNG format,Adobe's open sourced raw format.In my tests, your choice of camera app makes no difference.

In the resulting raw file, in terms of image quality.When I've compared raw files shot in Lightroom Mobilewith raw files shot with other third party,raw capable cameras, the results have always been identical.So you won't suffer a quality penalty,for choosing one of these apps over another.Be aware though, that raw shooting isa processor intensive activity.I don't actually shoot exclusively in rawon my phone for the simple reason,that it taxes the battery more than jpeg shooting does.Still, having the option for raw on my phone removesone of the most frustrating problemsof shooting with a mobile device

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Author

Updated

2/15/2018

Released

5/19/2013

In The Practicing Photographer, photographer and teacher Ben Long shares a weekly serving of photographic instruction and inspiration. Each installment focuses on a photographic shooting scenario, a piece of gear, or a software technique. Each one concludes with a call to action designed to inspire you to pick up your camera (or your mouse or smartphone) to try the technique for yourself.

Skill Level Beginner

27h 12m

Duration

2,591,508

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